Funding shifts signal fragility in biological data infrastructure

Three key biological databases recently faced funding interruptions, highlighting vulnerability in sustaining open data systems critical for health innovation.

Three key biological databases recently faced funding interruptions: PomBase ceased long-term Wellcome funding, FlyBase lost NIH curation support in 2025, and HGNC secured one NIH award in 2024 after a funding gap. The authors—Neil Hall, Katja Röper, Valerie Wood, and Paul Nurse—published this in Nature 656, 786 on 18 August 2026, urging biological databases to be treated as infrastructure rather than projects. This signals current fragility in sustaining open biological data systems that accelerate affordable health innovations. The source describes funding status as current as of 18 August 2026, with no quantified duration for HGNC’s gap, and notes the correspondence represents authors’ perspective, not comprehensive evidence. The source is brief and the detail sits with them.

Source: Nature